Monday, 19 August 2013

KICK ASS 2 - FILM REVIEW

WARNING: THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOLIERS TO NOT JUST KICK ASS 2, BUT TO KICK ASS 1.

Kick ass 2 is a sequel to the very popular Kick Ass, a comic book based action movie starring Chloe Moretz as 'Hit Girl' and Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Kick Ass. Also featuring Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Red Mist {as he was in Kick Ass 1} and also Jim Carrey.

Following events that happened at the end of Kick Ass 1, Chris D'Amico {Red Mist}'s father was killed by Kick Ass. Vowing revenge, and following the death of his mother {which he is also directly responsible for}, he is determined to become the world's first Super Villain, and with his hilarious attire dons his new evil nickname, The Motherfucker. Meanwhile, Hit Girl, after the death of her father Big Daddy {Nicholas Cage} in the first film, is now at high school but everyday skips school to fight crime. After Kick Ass asks Hit Girl to train him to be as tough as she is, they embark on fighting crime together. However, following a number of events which make Mindy have to choose between her school life or her vigilante life, she vows never to be Hit Girl again, much to the upset of Kick Ass. No longer having Mindy by his side, Kick Ass sets out to find other ordinary citizens to form a superhero super group. This is where he finds a number of heroes, led by Colonel Stars 'n' Stripes {played by Jim Carrey} and they invite Kick Ass to join them in the group they call Justice Forever.

Meanwhile, The Motherfucker is also recruiting his army of evil super criminals to kill Kick Ass. This results in a huge power struggle of Good VS Evil, and I have to say it is quite an enjoyable film. Even if it isn't as good as the first film. There are other twists and turns the film takes but I won't spoil every part of the plot for you so don't worry.

So let me start first off by saying I didn't not enjoy the film, but I did feel it was not as good as the first film. This film was directed by a different person {Jeff Wadlow, who also wrote this film}, and it shows in my opinion.

So what DID work? Well as was evident in the first film, the action/fight scenes are awesome. Extremely well put together and look very 'real'. It still has some of the crazy, over the top blood effects from the first film and I personally was glad to see that, however there was an overuse of shaky cam style camera work going on which in a few scenes made it hard to concentrate on what actually was happening. Chloe Moretz was excellent as Mindy/Hit Girl, she in many ways is the main star of the Kick Ass films, and in my opinion outshines and over shadows Kick Ass in both films. Whilst this film centres more on Mindy and not Hit Girl, that element was still very interesting and added depth to her character and was more than just a teenager who fights crime. The same can be said of Kick Ass too, we see a more human character of David Lizewski and that also makes his character all the more interesting. As many of you know, I am a big fan of Jim Carrey's work and unsurprisingly he was great as Colonel Stars 'n' Stripes, he added a few good comic moments to the film and although {SPOILER ALERT} he is not in the film all that long, he is a memorable character and I enjoyed him in this role. Christopher Mintz-Plasse was brilliant as The Motherfucker. He was funny and menacing at the same time and had some very funny lines in the film. I think this next point could work as a positive and a negative, but this film felt a lot darker than the last film. In humour and in story telling, I enjoyed certain elements of that dark tone, however I felt it took away some of the fun that the first film had and I felt the first film was a lot funnier and had a lot more humour added into it.

So what didn't work? Like I mentioned earlier the shaky cam action scenes got annoying very fast. I understand that sometimes shaky cam makes the fighting look more realistic but it can make the viewer not fully see what is going on in the scene and that for me was a disappointment. As a Jim Carrey fan, although his appearance length is relevant to the progression of the story, I felt he could have been in a bit longer as he was very entertaining.

I understand this film was up against stiff opposition with the first film as Kick Ass 1 was a fan favourite and I thoroughly enjoyed the first film, and again, while I didn't hate the film in any way shape, or form, it just doesn't have the humour or the sheer excitement that the original had in my opinion. If you loved Kick Ass 1, then by all means go and see Kick Ass 2 and I'm sure you will enjoy it.

My Rating - 7/10

Positives - Hit Girl, Kick Ass, The Motherfucker, Colonel Stars 'n' Stripes, all members of Justice Forever and all the super villains, Fight Scenes very well choreographed, some good one-liners.

Negatives - Too much shaky cam for fight scenes, not as fun and funny as the first film, Jim Carrey's screen time not long enough as he was funniest part of the film IMO.

Don't get me wrong everyone, I thought it was a decent film, I just left the film underwhelmed and disappointed as it just isn't as good as the original in my opinion.

Thanks for reading this review everyone I appreciate every view I get and I hope this review was useful to you. If you like this review I have many others in the sidebar feel free to check them out!

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Question of the day - Kick Ass 1 or Scott Pilgrim - Which film did you like the most? Me, it would have to be Kick Ass 1 as I hated Scott Pilgrim!

Thanks again everyone take care and my next review will be uploaded soon I will let you know on Facebook as to what film that will be, take care :) ﻿